Strategic initiative to improve the quality of end-of-life care

The Foundation's program, Community-State Partnerships to Improve End-of-Life Care, was designed to support the work of state-based commissions and task forces to identify and implement changes in policy and practice to improve care for people at the end of life.These groups will be undertaking reforms that involve complex medical and ethical issues for which expertise is often limited in many states. This project will address the barriers to quality care at the end of life for Kansans. Their project focuses on three major initiatives: (1) to remove barriers to quality end-of-life care in public policy, regulations, and legislation; (2) to heighten public understanding and demand for high quality end-of-life care; and (3) to assess and improve pain and symptom assessment and management practices of healthcare professionals.